


Outtake: Black and Gold: Smith and Smith

by Frin



Series: Black And Gold [2]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 17:42:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20178202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frin/pseuds/Frin





	Outtake: Black and Gold: Smith and Smith

Mickey liked to go back to the old haunts once in a while. It was pure nostalgia, but it was sometimes good to wallow in his losses.

He sort of thought of the Tylers as dead now. They were in heaven and he, well, he wasn’t.

He had settled into life at Torchwood, Cardiff well enough. Jack was cheese itself and he had the most awful wandering eye, but he knew his stuff and was completely reliable. Gwen and Ianto seemed pleasant and helpful although he was finding it hard stepping into somebody else’s shoes. Someone who they had obviously loved and who had been much better qualified than he, judging by the stuff she had left behind.

Martha Jones was something else. They had common ground and this made it seem like they had known each other all their lives. Oh yes, losing the family that he had been so attached to hadn’t hurt nearly as much when he and Martha had started together at Torchwood.

The irony of her fiancé wasn’t lost on him. He would, it seemed, always play second fiddle to a tall, clever doctor! 

But Martha didn’t seem that bothered about Tom, he was away all the time and she was busy with their work. They were close. Best friends. But there was something more and Mickey knew it was mutual. But he would never tread on someone else’s toes. Never.

He stood in the courtyard below Rose’s old flat and watched the new tenants leaving. A family. A young couple with a little boy, couldn’t have been much older than Tony would be now. He leant against the wall, hoodie concealing his face. He was still missing in this area.

Was it sad that he came back here whenever he had some free time? Maybe, but Cardiff was Wales for goodness sake… if you weren’t tracking aliens, what else could you do?

The couple walked right past him, swinging the little boy between them. They looked happy. Good, it was good… he hoped that Rose and the Doctor and Tony were as happy. However much it tugged at his heart strings.

How long he remained there was lost to him as he rambled in his thoughts and memories, it was the familiar sound from long ago that made him jump back into consciousness.

Just as it used to, the TARDIS materialised in the same spot. Mickey couldn’t believe his eyes. Months had gone by without any trace of him. They had all believed he had gone with her.

The door opened slowly, a familiar squeak that Mickey had really believed he would never hear again and the Doctor stepped out slowly, completely unaware that he was being watched.

He stared up at the Tyler’s old flat, very much as Mickey had done earlier; and shoved his hands deep into his long coat.

“You’ve got to be kidding me?” barked Mickey and the Doctor swung round. He looked haggard and haunted, and Mickey felt glad of this at least.

“Mickey?”

“Where is she?”

“Where’s who?”

“Don’t be an idiot! Where’s Rose?”

“Rose? Oh, hopefully living her life out with her family on the parallel... you know the one? Pete’s world?” He was being flippant, but it didn’t conceal the obvious pain that he felt at this information.

“You bloody idiot! Why would you do that to her? Did she even tell you? Oh, my God! She’s alone there?”

“No.”

“No?”

“Nope… not alone… she has a family there… she had to go back… there was no choice about that!”

“You were supposed to go with her!” Mickey shouted and the Doctor looked about them, worried of attracting attention.

“Not here, Mickey, come on…” He beckoned him inside the TARDIS and, reluctantly, Mickey followed him in.

They looked across the console at each other warily and neither spoke for a bit. Then the Doctor flicked a switch and the TARDIS groaned into the vortex.

“What the hell are you doing? I was on my day off!”

“What’s a day between old friends?”

“Friends?"

“Mickey, I believe that I haven’t treated you particularly well over the years, but now? It’s different now, isn’t it?” Mickey looked at him solemnly.

“Tell me… what happened... why?”

“I’ll tell you what you want to know, Mickey, if you tell me…" The Doctor stopped, took a deep breath and lowered his eyes from Mickey’s.

“You know?”

“Yes, I know…”

“And yet you’re here? Why would you do that to her… to them?”

“Mickey, you forget one very important fact!”

“You’re a Time Lord… you’re gonna live longer than them? How weak of you that you couldn’t spare a few of your many years for them!”

“No, Mickey, it’s not that and even if it were, I wouldn’t be able to get back… Mickey, don’t you remember? There were two of me!”

“What?”

“There were two of me… a human version of me… better matched for Rose…”

“He survived… the clone?”

“Not a clone! Copy, I might accept, but me, definitely me! It was the best solution all round…”

“And Rose agreed to it?”

“Yes, he said the right thing and she… she let me go…”

“No!”

“No?”

“Yeah, no... That’s not Rose… she wouldn’t… not so easily… she wouldn’t take a... a… copy and let you walk away, not after all she’s been through and all they need!”

“Mickey… that man… he’s me… she knows how it goes… she accepted a different man before and I didn’t even look like the first!”

“And Tony?”

“What about him?” The Doctor’s face had paled significantly, his knuckles clutching at the console for support.

“He’s your son!”

“He’s his son too…”

“Really, that’s a fact?”

“Yes! He is me… ipso facto he is Tony’s dad! They have everything they need, each other… Jackie… Pete, Pete’s able to keep them all comfortable… safe…”

“That’s it, isn’t it? You tuck people away nice and safe… out of harm’s way, you store them!”

“Yes, I do… is that so wrong, Mickey? Is it? I wanted her safe and happy! I wanted her with her family! It was the very best solution!”

“And Tony?”

“Again, you ask me… what about him?”

“Your own son? You’ll never know him, he’ll never know you? How did you explain that to Rose?”

“I didn’t know!”

“What?”

“She left that film… a disc in my pocket… you helped her make it… I didn’t know…" The Doctor slumped back into the pilot’s seat.

“Sorry,” said Mickey after a long pause.

“Yeah... me too, but there you have it… it’s for the best... he has everything he needs… only one loser in this… well two, then…” The Doctor said the latter by reaction to Mickey’s face.

“I can’t believe she didn’t tell you!”

“It all happened so fast… I didn’t really give her the opportunity… its fine!” The Doctor’s face showed that it was far from this. Here was a rare moment when somebody got to see the Doctor with an open wound. Mickey wasn’t sure if he could cope with it.

“Anyway… Mickey Smith, what brought you around those parts? I hear you’re dancing up a storm in Cardiff these days?” The Doctor managed to close his wound, or at least hide it.

“Same reason you were there, man… have to go back sometimes… you need to remember.” The Doctor nodded, but said nothing. So Mickey continued, “He’s great, you know… so like you… that man, he will be able to give him everything you could?”

“Yes.” Mickey nodded. There was an exchange of sorts in their faces and then they both looked away. “Thanks, Mickey…”

“What for?”

“Looking after them, taking it… you know… not really very good at wearing my heart on my sleeve, but you know?”

“Yeah…”

“Anyway… I heard from Martha Jones the other day…”

“Yeah? She’s been on holiday the past fortnight!”

“I know, she called me to give her a lift back to Cardiff from Barbados…”

“Oh? What happened?”

“Well, it would seem that Tom and Martha are having some problems… and she left him... seems she’s in love with someone else…”

“What is it with you and breaking up couples? We just try to get on with it and you storm in with all the glamour and…”

“Mickey… not me… although she did say that they never had a chance with my shadow hanging over them…”

“Not you? Then… who? Oh!” The Doctor nodded and grinned although the sparkle didn’t quite reach his eyes anymore.

“Do you need a lift?”

“Do I ever?” Mickey was grinning from ear to ear and then he stopped and looked very serious. “Tony is your son… he’s half Time Lord and that man… he’s not, he’s human, yeah?”

“Yes.”

“So, is that balanced?”

“Mostly... yes, I think so… I hope so… not really much we can do about it anyway…”

“No, I suppose not… they’ll be fine?”

“They have to be… yes, of course they will! Come on; let’s get you home to Martha Jones!”

“Thanks, Doctor… thanks so much!”

“Don’t need to thank me, Mickey; I’m just looking after my friends, like you did!”

He dropped Mickey outside Martha’s dockside apartment just a stone’s throw from the Hub. Although Mickey half heartedly invited him in, he declined and left quickly, wanting to put as much space between them as possible.

_“He’s great, you know… so like you… that man, he will be able to give him everything you could?”_ The voice echoed in his ears and he bowed his head right down and nodded at his feet. Maybe he was agreeing with his answer, maybe he was weeping. We will never know.


End file.
